


The Little Red Book—The Partners In Crime Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage
Genre: Developing Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-28 00:37:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13892529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: What else did that little red book say about him?  Were they in a real relationship?  Nate and Sophie work it out the only way the two of them know how.  Takes place season four.





	The Little Red Book—The Partners In Crime Job

**Author's Note:**

> I love it when they argue. That little red notebook that Sophie has is fascinating. They never bring it up again after Boys' Night Out/Girls' Night Out. It's in the first scene at Nate's apartment. You have to look to actually notice it. If they're going to be partners, they have to trust each other and give each other their due. It's a rocky road to accomplishing that.

The Little Red Book—The Partners In Crime Job

Takes place season four during and right after The Office Job and The Girls’ Night Out Job and The Boys’ Night Out Job.

 

What? What else did that little red book say about him?  What else had she told that documentary filmmaker?  Sure, he’d called her a shrew. She’d been acting like that for the past month, so yes, shrew it was. Then she’d gone and told the man that he didn’t like foreplay?  That he was a controlling abet functioning alcoholic?  Well, maybe that last statement was true.

Nate had managed to slip the small booklet from Sophie’s purse while she got ready for her supposed “dinner date” with someone. She wouldn’t tell him who or what it was about. He’d find that out shortly. The book was his target.

Turning the pages, he saw the neat check marks next to things like “unconvincing English accent”, “pint of milk” and even “no foreplay”. There were dates on each page. Some dates had more checks, especially the few days they were at the greeting card company.  Sophie had been most definitely ticked off at everything he attempted to do, so he laid it on thick to the point of her turning away from him once the job was over.

He was up shit’s creek without a paddle.  Sophie’s attitude had made Nate decide that a dose of reverse favoritism was his best course of action. It had backfired spectacularly.   He’d screwed up and now was paying the price. Even the card that he’d given her, asking forgiveness hadn’t swayed her that much. He was hurting, in more ways than one. He’d lost her trust, her companionship on this one.  How would she trust him again?

No outside interests? Sure, he had outside interests? One of them happened to be Sophie, but now that wasn’t in play.  He’d have to figure out how to win her back, make sure it didn’t affect the team’s workings, and assure himself that it wasn’t a real relationship, just friends.  The benefits were disappearing before his eyes. Not acceptable.

 

Functioning alcoholic?  Of course that was what Nate was.  Controlling? Most of the time.  Condescending to her ideas?  It happened daily. She thought they’d reached a consensus in San Lorenzo.  They were partners. Partners in crime, partners in bed, partners in the workings of Leverage Incorporated. Obviously Nate did not think that was the case at all.

Nate had to bring up the fact that her acting career had fizzled. She hadn’t the time to devote to anything other than the team and Nate’s wants and needs in the last year.  Ageism? There were roles for a more mature woman.  She just chose not to pursue them at that moment in time.

The man thought he could control everything around him, especially her.  He had her advice any time, he had sex any time he wanted, he had her pick up a pint of milk because he needed it in his coffee. But did he actually ask?  It was Sophie this, Hardison that, go over there Parker.  Even Eliot, who could punch Nate’s lights out, moved like a chess piece on the board. Jump when he says jump, no matter what it involved. God complex indeed.

He gets the job done and doesn't let anything get in the way -- not people, not feelings, not relationships. Sophie was tired of playing second fiddle to his first chair. Partners did not do the things that Nate did. 

Only the things he had written in that really inappropriate card that Parker had made took her by surprise.  He sounded genuine, like he was sorry the con had taken a turn for the two of them. Should she believe him?

Maybe Tara would have an opinion, an idea on what she should do. Nate was sulkier than usual, not wanting to play poker with the boys. She was going out to have fun, dammit and that’s what she was going to do if she had to kill half of Boston to do it. She deserved to dance, drink and possibly flirt with men much younger and hotter than Nate was. Shrew? Ageism? 

 

Hurley?  Sister Lupe?  The mob?  What else could have happened other than Hurley getting shot and pinning the whole fiasco of smuggling drugs on Callaghan and the Mexicans.  As he watched Sophie talk with Parker in the next room, Hardison and Eliot joining them with an arm around Lupe, Nate thought not too bad for a night’s work. His team pulled not one, but two jobs off quickly and with not too much strife. 

As he swirled his drink in the glass, he watched Sophie laugh with her teammates, laugh at their jokes, smile at Parker’s antics.  Would he ever be a part of the four’s relationships with each other? Or would he always be the “boss”, the man with a god complex, a functioning alcoholic who didn’t know how to have a real relationship, whether it be friends or something else?

Sophie glanced back, smiled and winked his way.  The night’s activities had put her in a good mood. He’d have to get the facts. She’d run a good con, saving Peggy and supposedly the Venezuelan people. Bombs, Parker asking for help and Tara had made for an interesting night for her. All Nate had to deal with was Hurley and his hugging. And getting shot at, yet again. Apparently Hardison played a dirty cop and Eliot had yet another date with a cop after Lupe.  Nate did not envy how many women Eliot could handle at once. One was plenty for Nate, especially if that one woman was the smartest, sexiest, and most beautiful in all the world.

Eliot soon wandered off with Lupe, arm around her middle. How Hurley fell for her being a nun? Nate never met a nun like that in his earlier years. He’d remember.  It was difficult enough dealing with high school girls. 

Parker and Hardison disappeared soon after, Hardison waving his arms, animated with his retelling of the night’s activities.

“Locking up?” Sophie called as she pulled the blinds shut.

Switching off the lights in the bar area, the only illumination came from a sign above the bar. Nate crossed his ankles, stretching out his lean frame in the wooden chair. He’d stopped drinking right after his team had walked into the bar just so he could watch how they interacted without being inebriated.  Now he downed what was left in his glass, just to show Sophie that it was business as usual.  Let her think he was drunk, he surmised.

“Eventful night?” Sophie asked as she entered the room.

“More than we bargained for. Hurley does tend to bring chaos wherever he travels.”

“Tara says hello.”

Nate gestured with his now empty glass Sophie’s way.

“She went off with Craig Mattingly apparently. He was hot. Can’t say I blame her.”

“Jealous?” Nate asked her.

“Envious, I think.”

That surprised Nate. Sophie never did seem to be jealous of Tara. Or was it the fact that Tara could just pick up some random guy or thief, go off and have a sordid one night stand?

“You would be,” he shot back, standing up finally.

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve made your opinion known,” he said as he nodded to her.

Sophie’s eyes darkened, narrowing at what he’d just said.  Did he want a fight after the night’s activities?

“As have you. Now if you’ll excuse me, this shrew has had a long night.” Sophie turned to leave.

“So you’re just gonna walk away?”

If he’d just kept his mouth shut, then he could have gotten out of there without the look she was giving him. Who would draw first blood?

“You bloody bastard. Always have to have the last word.”

“That’s kinda your thing.”

“Listen, you jerk, I’ve taken on the Venezuelan mafia, a thief who almost bested us, pushed a bomb out a window and saved Peggy from said thief. I don’t need the last word. Go and be that functional alcoholic you love to call yourself.”

And the zingers just kept on coming. Should he stop before either one of them said something they couldn’t take back or had that already been said?

“Being shot at not once but twice by the Irish mob? Sort of puts me in a shitty mood, don’t you think?”

“Well, you did duck, so there’s that.”

Nate grunted her way.

“And what if I’d been shot?”

“You would have shaken it off like you always do.”

Nate could see that look of concern when he said he’d been shot at, but it had disappeared quickly. If you didn’t know Sophie, then it would have not been noticeable.  He noticed.

“I’m not Superman.”

“Maybe you should walk around with a bulletproof vest.”

“Then they’d aim for my head or other important body parts.”

Sophie laughed a little at that comment.

“Wouldn’t want that to happen,” Sophie commented as she looked down.

The look she was giving him was not a mistake. She always gave him that little smile, like she knew some secret he did not. Her tongue would dart out just a little, wetting her lips to perfection.  He wondered if she knew she was doing it. As he walked over to her, he noticed her smile widen, her head turn to the right just slightly. Sophie Devereaux playing coy?  More like vixen. Only for him.

“Which body part?” Nate managed to get out before Sophie’s fingers came up to brush his tangled hair off his forehead.

“Well, I most definitely wouldn’t want this to be injured in any way,” she answered while looking at his head.

“Kinda like my brain being in one piece.”

Picking up his hand, Sophie brought one of his fingers up to her lips, sucking it in, tongue swirling around the tip. Nate tried not to moan at what she’d just done.

“I do like what these can do to me.”

“You do?” Nate replied, his voice deeper now that she was turning him completely on.

Tracing his lips with her fingers, she smiled up at him as he stood directly in front of her, his jacket brushing up against her dress.

“At least you managed to not get hit this time.”

Her hungry lips touched his, opening immediately to sweep her tongue to duel with his. Nate’s hands itched to take that stunning dress off of Sophie to see what was underneath.

“But if you’re speaking of this, then I would be sad if something were to happen to it.”

Sophie grabbed his crotch and squeezed.

“Foreplay?” Nate whispered in her ear.

“Just fuck me.”

Nate had his hand up her dress before she finished saying me.

Sophie’s screech made Nate stop his forward progress. He hadn’t even heard the back door open until he heard Peggy’s cry of astonishment.

“Keys?” Hurley asked as Sophie swatted Nate’s hand away.

As Nate dropped his head to Sophie’s shoulder, he dug Hurley’s keys out of his pocket and threw them back to him.

“So sorry guys,” Peggy said, pulling Hurley after her as fast as she could.

“Congrats, Nate. Woohoo.”

Hurley slammed the door after exiting.

“Yes, woo fucking hoo,” Nate repeated. “Now about that dress.”

“What about this dress? Tara liked it.”

“Oh, Tara liked it?”

“Yes.”

“So you were dressing for Tara?”

“No, I was actually dressing to see if it would make you jealous. Did it work?”

Nate looked at her skeptically.  “Not really.  Made me wonder what you have on underneath.”

“Why don’t we go upstairs, lock the door and I’ll show you.”

“I thought you were still mad at me,” Nate asked as he shut off the lights.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t punish you upstairs.”

“Punish me?”

 

It didn’t take long for Nate to have her up the stairs, in to his apartment and door locked.  It took mere minutes for the dress to come off. Then he stopped, hands skimming up and down her body, admiring her undergarments, eyes bluer than blue when he was turned on.

She wanted to scream get on with it, but his hands were telling her a different story.

“Very virginal.  White?”

“White dress. I could have just gone without.”

Nate swallowed, obviously imagining that scenario.

“Granted. I kind of like the view.”

“Until you take them off.  I am of a certain age. Things aren’t as tight and perky.”

Nate held his arms wide.  “You’ve seen me without clothes.”

“I have indeed. And I would like to see it again. So get on with it.”

Nate traced a finger down her middle, making her shiver. “Just enjoying this. I heard from someone that foreplay’s not my thing.”

Sophie’s fingers came up to his throat, watching as it turned pink. Oh how she loved to make him blush.

“You do seem to be an eager beaver as the saying goes.”

“I’m not the one who strips me as soon as there’s no one around,” Nate stated as his finger made it to the top of her underwear.

He traced the top of it, around the elastic, to the back. His finger then pushed underneath.

“You’re very, very hard to resist. I seem to remember you pinning me against the door that one time.”

“One time?” Sophie answered, hands sweeping his jacket off to float to the floor.

“More than one time?” Nate questioned.

“You had been purring in my ear all day. What’s a girl to do?”

“We were on a job.”

“Still.  Do you know what your voice does to me?”

“So while we’re on comms, all you think about is having sex with me against the door?”

“Not every single time. Sometimes.”

Nate laughed as he pulled the finger out of her underwear, slowly working it up her back.  Sophie’s tongue darted out, tracing up the tense muscle on his neck that would make him moan if she bit down just so.  She watched as he closed his eyes at her movements. Her fingers worked on the buttons of his shirt.

“Which job?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

So she wouldn’t tell him when he’d done it. Now he would be second guessing every single time he spoke into the comms on a job.  Maybe that’s what she wanted?

His fingers lightly circled her shoulders, playing with the straps of her bra. His mouth joined his fingers, teeth working the left strap off until it fell to her arm.

“You are really enjoying this, aren’t you?” Sophie asked Nate.

“We’ll see.”

“Not like the outcome is going to be any different.”

Oh boy was she wrong, but she wouldn’t tell Nate that.

They worked their way up the spiral staircase, made it to the bed ever so slowly. Sophie panted as his tongue traced almost every inch of her body. It seemed like it took forever.  It was when he finally made it to her left breast that had Sophie grabbing his head and arching her back to give him more access. She’d tried to play it cool. Damn him and that tongue of his.

At some point, he had worked off her virginal white underwear.  He still had his boxers on, but after switching to the right side, her hands had finally managed to work them down and off before she spontaneously combusted.

“Nate, now,” she cried out as his fingers lingered on her thighs.

Not like she hadn’t tried to have him get a move on, hands circling his erection, but he moved away before things got out of hand, every pun intended.

“Please,” Sophie finally begged.

“Sophie Devereaux begging?” Nate laughed. “I thought you liked foreplay.”

“I like sex. With you. Now.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

It felt heavenly when Nate finally complied with her wishes, not taking that long to complete what he had started. Only he wasn’t done with her.

“Need a little help,” Sophie breathed out as she came down from her peak.

“Just enjoying myself,” he said as he shifted her legs over his shoulders.

The change of position revved her engines again so to speak. Bastard knew exactly what to do even though he was attempting to reach release.  Sometimes they’d have sex so fast, she didn’t have a chance to enjoy what he was doing to her body. Release was release. This was thorough, mind bending bliss.

Working his fingers between them, Nate sped up his thrusts. Instead of meeting him thrust for thrust, her hand curled around, coming down on his ass hard with a slap which in turn made him go even faster. Another slap, another hard thrust until another orgasm ripped through her body with the force of a freight train this time.

“Jesus fucking Christ Sophie.”

Nate often cursed, but not like this. He tipped over the edge, body rigid, eyes tightly screwed shut as he finished. Sophie had watched it all, watched as he lost control in the heat of passion. It was something he rarely did, only with her, only late at night. He collapsed against her, body spent.

“Foreplay might just kill me next time,” Nate groaned into her ear as he lay on top of her panting.

“That was…” Sophie started.

“Earth shattering. I can’t move.”  Sophie giggled, grabbing his ass and squeezing.  “Probably will have hand prints on my ass for days.”

“Oh, you big baby. That was punishment for being an ass to me.”

“I guess I need to be reminded,” he said as he buried his face by her neck.

“I guess I’ll have fun reminding you.”

“You are not a shrew.”

“Who uses that word?”

“You said I didn’t like foreplay.”

“So I was wrong.”

“So was I.”

Nate collapsed beside her, pulling her cooling body to his.

“If we are going to be partners, we have to present a united front.”

Nate curled around her, oblivious to the mess they had created.

“Partners in crime. I like the sound of that.”


End file.
